Born in Timaru, New Zealand, Dawkins started in the music business as a drummer in his teens; he toured Europe in the mid-1960s with his freakbeat bands Me and the Others, and The New Nadir.
After the breakup of The New Nadir, guitarist and lead vocalist Ed Carter moved to California to play for the Beach Boys, bassist Gary Thain joined the Keef Hartley Band, and then Uriah Heep before dying of an overdose in 1975.
In the mid-seventies Dawkins produced Spectrum's successor Ariel, including their acclaimed albums A Strange Fantastic Dream (1973) and Rock 'n' Roll Scars (1974), which was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, and engineered by the legendary Geoff Emerick.
During 1973 Dawkins also created, co-wrote, and produced The Star Suite (EMI Records), a concept album based on astrological themes, released under the name 'Patch', and featuring an all-star lineup of players that included members of Ariel and Tamam Shud, as well as leading Australian session musicians.
Remarkably, Dawkins had to fight to get the song released as a single, over the vocal objections of Ryan's then manager, who loudly declared, "There is no way in the world that is going to be a hit!"
Dawkins also produced hit albums and singles for expatriate NZ band Mi-Sex, the Australian group Pseudo Echo, the hugely successful album-oriented rock group Air Supply, country music star Slim Dusty, singer-songwriter Russell Morris and rocker Billy Thorpe, amongst many others.
In early 1976, at the urging of Ariel's Mike Rudd, Dawkins went to see the recently arrived NZ band Dragon at the Recovery Wine Bar in Camperdown, Sydney, and he was so impressed by their material (mostly written by keyboard player Paul Hewson) that he immediately signed them to a recording contract with CBS' subsidiary label, Portrait.
In 1978 he flew to a Holiday Inn club in Baltimore, Maryland, to see singer songwriter Tony Sciuto, and signed him on the spot to a CBS Record contract.
As part of that effort, in 2006, Sony/BMG issued a compilation album of Dawkins' productions, For Pete's Sake,[2] which included the Matt Finish hit Short Note, and a new song, "Understand", written by Dawkins' son Paul and the late Matt Moffitt, and sung by the Little River Band's Glenn Shorrock.